The administrator in charge of Crystal Palace, Brendan Guilfoyle, claims Neil Warnock had indicated he "lacked the stomach" to remain at the financially stricken Championship club as he sought to force through his move across the capital to Queens Park Rangers.

Warnock, 61, signed a three-and-a-half-year contract at Loftus Road on Tuesday after Palace reluctantly agreed a £500,000 compensation package with their relegation rivals. He will be unveiled by the west London club tomorrow. Guilfoyle has since appointed the former Portsmouth and, briefly, QPR manager Paul Hart as Warnock's replacement at Selhurst Park until the end of the season, with Dougie Freedman and John Pemberton, both celebrated former Palace players, forming his backroom staff.

"Unwelcome, I think," said Guilfoyle when asked whether he was disappointed to see Warnock and his staff, Keith Curle and Mick Jones, depart from the club. "It's not something I sought. I did everything I could to try and keep him here, but he chose to go elsewhere. He was determined to go. He told me he didn't have the stomach for the fight here so, if he wasn't committed, I needed to let him go."

The compensation figure secured from QPR, as well as the removal of Warnock's £15,000-a-week salary from the wage bill, will provide welcome relief for Palace as they seek to attract new owners – their deadline for bids to be received has been extended to 12 March, with 36 tentative expressions of interest having been received – with Hart offered the incentive of a bonus should he manage to retain the club's Championship status. Palace's 10-point penalty for slipping into administration has left them 21st in the division, out of the relegation zone only on goal difference.

"Our sole aim is to stay in this division," said Hart, whose first game in charge will be against Sheffield United on Saturday. "I'm here for a short time, but for a reason. This is a huge challenge but, with the players already at the club, I'm confident that we can achieve our goal of staying in the Championship."

Those ranks will not be further depleted by players departing on loan, with Swansea's attempts to secure the midfielder Neil Danns apparently thwarted. "I can categorically state that no players will be leaving this club before the end of the season," said Guilfoyle. "Our goal is to stay in the Championship and we need the players that we have got here to do that."

Moves for Steve Coppell and Gareth Southgate, as well as Iain Dowie, had been knocked back before Palace settled upon Hart, who departed QPR in January after only five games in charge. "I'm delighted to get them across the line," added Guilfoyle of his appointment of the 56-year-old and his assistants. "People of their calibre are hard to find. We trawled the market and these are the guys who we came up with.

"They're confident, they're up for it. Dougie knows the club inside out. We wanted a team who could hit the ground running. We haven't got much time so that was important. They've been given contracts until the end of the season with a brief to keep the club in the Championship."

Hart added: "I needed people who knew Crystal Palace and Dougie Freedman and John Pemberton fitted the bill. I think it's quite obvious I like a challenge, and this is a big one, but I felt that the support would be there. This club deserves to be in this division. There's been a lot thrown at it in the last six months and the players don't deserve it.

"There are many similarities to Portsmouth [where he was appointed with 14 games to go last season and survived in the top flight]. There are 14 games left, there's an experienced squad who can play, and I feel with a few tweaks we can get there."